National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Background information on the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Areas supported NIH funds grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts that support the advancement of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behaviour of living systems to meet the NIH mission of extending healthy life and reducing the burdens of illness and disability.
Types of funding
Research Grants, Programme/Project Grants
See NIH website
Funding Guide See NIH funding guide
NIH funding opportunities On NIH website
On ResearchProfessional.com. You will need to log in or click on Campus Access to view these.
NIH Research Income at Oxford 2010/11: Oxford received £4.3M, (forth largest overseas research funder of the University)
Applications and Award Activity at Oxford 2010/11: 32 applications to the value of £11.6M. 19 new NIH awards were set up to the value of £2.5M, which includes financial amendments (University financial year Aug-Jul)

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Preparing your application

  • Researchers at Oxford apply for funding as a collaborator on an application led by another institution (usually a US-based institution), or, as is increasingly the case in recent years, as the lead organisation in its own right.

  • If you are thinking of putting together a grant application, please get in touch with your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator as soon as possible (and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline), so that they can provide advice and assistance with the preparation of your proposal. The sooner you get in touch, the more they will be able to help.

  • Foreign institutions are not eligible to apply for all types of NIH awards but in general can apply for research project grants (R01).

  • NIH announces availability of funds for grant programmes by issuing funding opportunity announcements. These take the form of parent announcements (PA), which are broad-ranging in scope and for investigator-led projects, as well as Requests for Applications (RFAs) which seek projects in response to well-defined research areas or topics.

Further Information

  • Step by Step Guide to Applying for Funding- a general guide for researchers to applying for funding, including the internal processes at Oxford.

  • NIH Grant Basics including eligibility and opportunities

  • NIH Grant Process Overview

  • Presentations from the NIH Research Funding Seminar and Discussion Forum, 11 May 2010:

    • Experience with the NIH (572kb) - Professor Mark McCarthy spoke about the range of NIH-funded programmes he has been involved with and led, including a major international consortium, and gave many very helpful tips for researchers applying for and managing awards from this source for the first time.

    • - The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, gave a fascinating insight into his experience as a recipient of NIH funding for over 20 years and as a member of the peer review study sections. In addition, Stephen Conway (Research Services) outlined the funding opportunities available from the NIH and its application and award processes.

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Using the electronic application system

  • The vast majority of NIH applications where we are applying direct, including R01 applications, must be submitted electronically using the Grants.gov and eRA Commons systems.

  • Please note that the application process is a complex and lengthy one and it is recommended that applicants allow plenty of time for this.

  • PIs need a registered account on eRA Commons, so allow time for this to be created (only the University needs an account on Grants.gov, which it already has). Please see the create a user account section of the Overview of NIH Electronic Applications page for details of how to do this.

  • The actual process of creating, validating and submitting the application online can also take considerably longer than with other electronic systems.

  • On 25 January 2010 NIH introduced significant changes to its grant application forms; forms have been restructured and have shorter page limits.

  • The NIH require a variety of different US reference numbers to be entered on the application. University of Oxford reference numbers are as follows:

    • DUNS Number: 226694883

    • Entity Identification Number: 1900214891A1

    • Animal Welfare Assurance Number: A5061-01

    • Human Subject Assurance Number: FWA00003276

    • NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code:  611310 – Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

    • NCAGE (NATO Commercial and Governmental Entity) code: KCX32

    • In reference to the F&A costs and the DHHS agreement: Oxford does not have a DHHS agreement but a rate (8 percent of total direct costs less only equipment) for foreign and international organisations  was established with NOT-OD-01-028 on 29 March 2001. See Allowable and Unallowable Costs section of the NIH Grants Policy Statement for further information.

Further Information

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Preparing a Case for Support

  • This is the part of the application where you will describe your proposed project and why you should be funded to carry it out.

  • Ensure that your case is well-structured and addresses the issues or questions raised by the NIH in the call..

  • Familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria that will be used - and the weighting given to each.

  • When writing your proposal be aware of who will ultimately be reading and assessing it. This will not just be subject experts but also generalists sitting on review panels.

  • Use the advice and expertise of colleagues, especially those who have had successful proposals with the NIH - it can be helpful to ask colleagues who are both expert and non-expert in your field to read and comment on your application.

  • As with all aspects of your application, don't overlook 'minor details'. The wrong font size or exceeding page limits will result in your application being returned by the funder - and sometimes not considered at all.

Further Information

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Ethics

Further Information

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Costing and Budgeting

  • Your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator will assist you to identify the costs of your project and also prepare a Resolve costing. Please contact them as soon as you are thinking about applying and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline. The Resolve costing will provide the financial information that you must include in the NIH forms and, since this is the form that indicates Departmental approval of the costs of a project, it has to be provided to Research Services before the application can be approved and submitted by the University to the funder.

  • The NIH pays Directly Incurred costs and many elements of Directly Allocated costs (such as PI time, facility charges, pool and infrastructure laboratory charges but not FEC Estates costs).

  • Non-US institutions may not charge the NIH overheads. However, the NIH will pay facilities and administrative (F&A) costs at a rate of 8% of all other costs (excluding equipment) to support compliance with NIH requirements (including research involving human subjects, animal welfare, invention reporting, research misconduct procedures).

  • The NIH require the Basic salary and Fringe benefits (NI and superannuation) to be stated on the budget pages. The Basic salary is comprised of salary figures plus the allowance for inflation. The total for NI & Superannuation is entered in the Fringe benefits column. To calculate the fringe benefits for Directly Allocated staff, the total Directly Allocated salary costs need to be "top sliced" by 20% and this figure stated in the Fringe benefits column.

  • All costs on the application should be stated in US dollars ensuring the correct University dollar rate is used.

Further Information for researchers

(Departmental administrators see guidance on Resolve costings)

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I'm ready to submit my application - what should I do now?

  • Firstly check that your application is complete and includes all the information and attachments required by the NIH.

  • Electronic applications needs to be approved by your Head of Department.

  • The Department should then email the PDF application to Research Services.

  • Following any necessary amendments to the application, the application is submitted by Research Services to Grants.gov where it is routed electronically from Grants.gov to the NIH's eRA Commons for validation.

  • Please note that the NIH application deadline applies to when the application reaches the NIH and NOT Grants.gov. It can take up to three days for the application to be submitted through the Grants.gov and eRA Commons systems (Grants.gov may take up to two days to process an application and eRA Commons may take one day).

  • When applying to the NIH through another institution, you will need to provide the lead institution with details of your costing and you are required to submit a letter of intent, which will be signed off by Research Services, to establish a consortium agreement. You can download the application form (PHS 398) from the NIH website.

Further Information

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The application has been submitted - what next?

  • The application will be checked by the NIH to ensure that you meet the eligibility requirements for the scheme and that it contains all the necessary information. The application is then assigned to a relevant NIH Institute/Centre (that would ultimately fund the project) as well as a specific study section (Scientific Review Group).

  • Applications are subject to peer review by the assigned Scientific Review Group and to a second level of review by the Advisory Council or Board of the potential funding NIH Institute or Centre.

  • You will be notified of the outcome of your application.

  • For fundable projects, you will enter a pre-award negotiation process with the funding Institute or Centre, which may involve some changes to elements such as the funding requested.

  • A Notice of Award will then be issued.

  • Do let your Departmental Administrator know the outcome of your application. Where it is to be funded they will liaise with you and Research Services regarding the acceptance of the award.

Further Information

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Managing your award

    • See Managing awards for the process at Oxford for accepting and managing awards.

    • All claims, invoices and financial statements to funders must go out from Research Accounts, never directly from Departments.

    • The award requirements associated with NIH awards are very detailed and often complex. Please see our advice on Managing an NIH award and you are advised to familiarise yourself with all award requirements and NIH policies.

    Further Information

    • NIH Public Access Policy: requires that all investigators funded by the NIH submit (or have submitted for them) to PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication.

    • NIH Overview of award management: all aspects of the award process and associated terms and conditions and policies (including financial, progress and invention reports, prior approval requests and audit requirements).

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    Documents

    Related links

    Find out more